Mumbai: Lost by ex-ACP, Ganpati idol is welcomed by MHB police

The former ACP, who has been suffering from a mental illness, gave the idol to a devotee in Borivli on Monday and forgot about it; the MHB police held poojas regularly for three days and conducted the idol’s visarjan yesterday

The Maharashtra Housing Board (MHB) colony police were in for a pleasant surprise on Monday, when a devotee came to them with an unclaimed 2-foot Ganpati idol.

After worshipping it at the police station for three days, the officials conducted its visarjan on Thursday. “On Monday, retired ACP Bawdy, who suffers from some mental problems, was taking the Ganpati idol for visarjan.

He reached a garden near the IC colony where he met a devotee, claimed he was the police commissioner and asked him to look after the idol for some time as he had to run an urgent errand. When Bawdy did not return for over an hour, he took the idol to the Borivli police station,” said an official from the MHB police.

Since the city was on high alert on visarjan day, the Borivli police scanned the idol thoroughly, but refused to take its custody since it hadn’t been lost in their jurisdiction. They asked the devotee to take it to the MHB police, who were more than happy to look after the idol of the elephant god.

Senior inspector Subhash Chavan of MHB police station said, “A Ganpati idol was in our custody and we were very happy and also conducted poojas regularly in the police station. We also arranged a visarjan programme in the station on Thursday and immersed the idol the same evening.

The idol was given to the devotee by retired ACP Bawdy, who is a resident of IC colony in Borivli. His health hasn’t been too good for the past year, and he may have forgotten that he had given the idol to someone in the garden.”